Tucker Max was on Carson Daly last night, and even Tucker seemed sick of his tired old act. Is it possible to kind of feel sorry for the painted-into-a-corner professional asshole?

Advertisement

I may be kind of biased, having been on the receiving end of an almost completely unprovoked 2006 email from Tucker Max telling me to kill myself (if you haven't already gathered this from his recent press, he's one of those dudes who goes nuclear at the slightest hint of criticism), but judging from his appearance on Carson Daly last night, which was painful to watch, Tucker Max isn't going to be going on very many more z-list talk shows. In the clip above, Tucker attributes his book's success to how funny it is, how real and authentic he is, and how he's one of the only people in culture who are "un-apologetically masculine." Have you ever noticed that actual funny, authentic, real people, be they celebrities or normals, don't run around talking about how funny and authentic they are?

Carson never addresses the parts of the book and movie that have most offended people (and he certainly doesn't mention the whole "almost everything in Tucker Max's book was already an old urban legend for decades" accusation), but he does ask Tucker if he's learned any lessons. Even though Tucker has defended the movie by trying to frame it as a redemption story, he makes it clear that Tucker Max the movie character is purely two-dimensional (please to note his crazy-eyes at the end):

Advertisement

And this part is sad, because every time Tucker Max mentions his family, it's literally sad:

This is what he said about his parents in a recent interview with CinemaBlend:

"My parents at this point obviously know what I do. Not to be a dick, but I don't give a shit. It's not their life, it's mine. It's what I want to do. My mom, no question, is not happy with it. The narcissist act is not an act. I actually am a narcissist, very much so. My world revolves around me. She's my mom, I care, but not really.

i don't really have that close of a relationship with my family. How do you make a narcissist? You have two parents who are fairly neglectful. God bless them, they're good people, and they care, but they're just not good at being parents. So it just doesn't occur to me that I should worry about what they think."

With his constant need to mention his one accomplishment, his self-diagnosed serious mental illness, and his total dismissal of the feelings of the closest people in his life, Tucker Max seems more and more like a Michael Scott/David Brent-type character, only sadly real. Yes, he gets laid - we know because he talks about it endlessly, but this guy seems more and more like someone who has a lot of pain and loneliness in his life, and nobody to share it with but his dog. He must know, deep down, that this "unrepentant asshole" character's expiration date is almost up, and to stay working he's going to have to re-invent himself. Maybe the new Tucker Max will have an epiphany, or a friend, who helps transform him into whatever he needs to be to be relevant. But probably not.